Caraktère Publishing has sent Armorama a copy of their recent publication Tanks and Trucks. This book looks at the Main Battle Tanks in service with 21 nations around the world at the current time.

Review

This very recent release from Caraktère Publishing is a soft back book of 114 pages. The paper used is of a good quality with a glossy finish. The cover is a heavy glossy card that should be more than up to the job of protecting the contents under normal circumstances, but this copy did get damaged in the postal system. The spine near the bottom of the book has been cracked, but in defence of Caraktère Publishing I have seen the state of some much hardier items damaged by postal services. The text in the book is written entirely in French.

Being written in French does restrict its appeal generally unless of course you can read French. As a none French speaker and reader I found it hard to appreciate the benefits of this title. With this title being presented as covering the main battle tanks in use currently with 21 nations, you really need to understand the language to get something out of the title beyond a couple of images. I do feel this has possibilities even with the main text being in French and that would be to have at least the image captions in English as well as French; I say English due to it being used by five times the number of French speakers and only beaten by Mandarin. On the plus side this title could be used as a quick reference if you want to know what main battle tanks are used by any of the 21 nations covered.

The photographs in the book are very good, being both in focus and showing the tanks at their best for the most part. Some of the photographs show the vehicles in war zones around the globe, I particularly like the photographs of the M1A2 Abrams with the full width mine plow fitted to it. Having looked through the title I did note that a good few of the images are ones that I have never seen before either online or in print.

Conclusion

The titles that come out of Caraktère Publishing do appear to me at least to be quality books that provide some interesting print choices. The titles I have looked at previously from Caraktère Publishing have had plenty for anyone interested in the areas covered, this is due to the photographs having a quality of information when brought together in a single title, this titles contents covering countries around the globe does not have the same appeal for none French readers. That said if you can read French, then this title does look to be a good reference when it comes to heavy armour.